Kelowna

Fish tales to silver screen

Four years in the making, and local cinematographer Travis Lowe is finally ready to reveal his full-length feature film, Finding Fontinalis.

He shot 1,000 hours of footage and travelled from Argentina to to Thunder Bay to reel in what might be the biggest fish tale he’s ever told.

The original idea behind the film was to follow four anglers down to Argentina and see if they could catch a world-record brook trout.

“What really happened was they became aware of what was going on in this place,” explained Lowe. “The film changed gears, and it became more about saving the place, and it goes on from there to see one man’s journey and how he contributes to the conservation of (Patagonia).”

That man is Bart Bonime, an executive of outdoors outfitter Patagonia, which produced the film.

Bonime narrates the documentary of his own personal calling to conservation.

“He reveals that he was a person who admired the work of others, but basically sat on the sidelines of conservation,” said Lowe. “What he finds in Argentina causes him to think about that, to change his mind and become actually involved.”

Lowe also discovered the story of J.W. Cook, who caught a brook trout whose record stood for 100 years. “That story took place in Nipigon, Ont., and we go to Nipigon to find the back story .... what we find there is maybe a bit of a white lie, a mystery.”

Lowe’s film premiers Saturday in Kelowna at the Laurel Packinghouse. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door or at Trout Waters Fly and Tackle.

The event starting at 5 p.m. is the eighth annual Okanagan Chapter Trout Unlimited Fly Fishing Film Festival. Proceeds from the film will go to preserving rivers and creeks in the Okanagan.